For those that care, I used to work in corporate training with the HE sector and one of the models that was constantly flung around was Belbin's theory of key roles in teams. I've done the various tests numerous times and the same answer always comes. Happily, for someone who now works in marketing, I score really highly as a Shaper ( dynamic team-member who loves challenges and thrives on pressure. This member possesses the drive and courage required to overcome obstacles) and as a Plant (A creative, imaginative, unorthodox team-member who solves difficult problems). However, I think if I could score any lower in one category, the trainer would probably suggest I was trying to flunk the test! That category?
Completer/Finisher
I'll have, over the years, readily accepted that my ability to fulfil the role as an 'ideas' man, or to deal with complicated problems in a conceptual nature outstrips my ability to carry things through to their absolute conclusion. At work, it's something I have to really concentrate on and develop those finishing skills and the diligence to apply them.
To the same extent, I have had to work hard in my gaming to develop some finishing skills too. Believe it or not, before I met my current group, I had NEVER taken a campaign to a finite conclusion. This was a combination of running games that simply ran out of steam (as open ended games tend to do) or just losing interest altogether. Crescent Sea (our initial 3e adventure) was the first campaign I have ran with an eye to a definite conclusion, although even that for the first two-thirds of the campaign was pretty much open ended. Slaying Days Seasons 1 & 2 offered something new in that I could say very early on exactly how many episodes each season would have and this allowed for the inclusion of TV tropes such as 'sweeps week' two-parters mid-season.
Pulsars and Privateers sits in my gullet as a campaign that I never saw through to a conclusion. Whilst the campaign saw the end of it's first 'movement' when the crew of the Khanjar defeated One-Eyed Elijah and got their own moonbase. Behind the scenes, hinted at through the episodes, there was something happening in hyperspace and eventually the aliens that lived there would invade and cause the chaos that would make the Khanjar famous. Tales that never happened as work took its toll on the campaign. Its very hard to leave something like that and it annoys me.
Omniverse is currently at a crossroads. I've shelved it for a month or so. One reason is that I wanted to get my head around some of the concepts and judge whether I had honestly just recreated Fate. Another was that I wanted to get the work finished on Duty and Honour in preperation for CottageCon. And if I am honest, another was because after the short formal playtest that we did, I sort of mentally relegated the game to partially done.
Thats bullshit really and deep down, I have known it for a while.
I challenged myself today, in one of my Metro thinking sessions to consider Omniverse as an unfinished work. To think of myself going to GenCon with it unfinished. I was horrified. Thats not something that I am prepared to do. Then I wondered what I really wanted to do with it. Did I really want to present a generic system, with all of the generalities that it brings.
And in the end, I decided I didn't. I need to do something more focused. The generic system that I love can exist within another game (and another and another) but it needs some structure. It needs to be a Crescent Sea or a Buffy and no some adolescent campaign that drags on and on without any purpose.
The best idea I have ever had for a game setting has been MI:666 - it compels me and it enthuses me. So Omniverse will become MI:666 and it will be finished. And then... well, Pulsars and Privateers is unfinished business.
Neil
Showing posts with label Omniverse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Omniverse. Show all posts
Monday, April 16, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Forging a New (Virtual) Reality
Things have been pretty frantic over the last few days and it has been pretty damned good. Lets start off with World of Warcraft. I had a potter for a few hours on Saturday morning but other than that I haven't touched it for about a week now. And guess what? I've hardly missed it. OK, thats a little shy of the truth - I'm not missing the game, nor am I missing the people, but I have got those odd feelings of compulsion and a little guilt regarding the guild. However the actual gameplay is just not needed. Thats very strange, especially considering the amount I have played the game. I don't know how long my WoW holiday will last, but at the moment it's going fine.
So, if I am not playing WoW, what the hell am I doing with my time?
Roleplaying has taken to the ascendency in a major way as of late. A couple of weeks ago we played a session of Pendragon that, I believe, most people around the table would rather forget about. I haven't mentioned it specifically in 'The Bottom of the Glass' because so much was mentioned about it elsewhere. I would rather dwell upon the way that, I believe, it acted as a little wake-up call for many of the people around the table.
Maybe we had become a little complacent? Maybe we were a little too full of our own cleverness? Maybe we just forgot that we were there to ROLEPLAY? I have no idea. However our last session was nothing short of magical. Nigel excelled himself in the GMs chair by taking things a little slower, slipping in some tried and tested GMing tools and making the game focussed wholly on the characters. Around the table the banter and near constant WoW side references stopped dead. We played. We played in-character, we expanded the story, we energised the setting. It was just brilliant. Moreover, we also established 'Steak and Cinema Sunday' - a Sunday once-a-month where we have something to eat and then see a suitable gamer-esque movie. Our first one will be '300'.
Subsequent to that session we have been abuzz with relationship mappings, ideas for storylines and other hints and help. Really, it is 'Ask not what your GM can do for you, but what you can do for your GM' at the moment.
Omniverse continues apace and we had our first real face-to-face playtest session. It was amazing. I cannot really describe the buzz of seeing people you respect taking your little game very seriously indeed. Questions were asked, debates were had and you know what - they 'got it'! That was the best bit, they seemed to understand and buy into the ideas I had put down. Oh, I know it was only character generation but it made me feel magnificent.
A smorgasbord of gaming and related pursuits seems to be my fate at the moment. And that, readers of my sometimes rather pessimistic blog, is a VERY GOOD THING INDEED!!
Neil
So, if I am not playing WoW, what the hell am I doing with my time?
Roleplaying has taken to the ascendency in a major way as of late. A couple of weeks ago we played a session of Pendragon that, I believe, most people around the table would rather forget about. I haven't mentioned it specifically in 'The Bottom of the Glass' because so much was mentioned about it elsewhere. I would rather dwell upon the way that, I believe, it acted as a little wake-up call for many of the people around the table.
Maybe we had become a little complacent? Maybe we were a little too full of our own cleverness? Maybe we just forgot that we were there to ROLEPLAY? I have no idea. However our last session was nothing short of magical. Nigel excelled himself in the GMs chair by taking things a little slower, slipping in some tried and tested GMing tools and making the game focussed wholly on the characters. Around the table the banter and near constant WoW side references stopped dead. We played. We played in-character, we expanded the story, we energised the setting. It was just brilliant. Moreover, we also established 'Steak and Cinema Sunday' - a Sunday once-a-month where we have something to eat and then see a suitable gamer-esque movie. Our first one will be '300'.
Subsequent to that session we have been abuzz with relationship mappings, ideas for storylines and other hints and help. Really, it is 'Ask not what your GM can do for you, but what you can do for your GM' at the moment.
Omniverse continues apace and we had our first real face-to-face playtest session. It was amazing. I cannot really describe the buzz of seeing people you respect taking your little game very seriously indeed. Questions were asked, debates were had and you know what - they 'got it'! That was the best bit, they seemed to understand and buy into the ideas I had put down. Oh, I know it was only character generation but it made me feel magnificent.
A smorgasbord of gaming and related pursuits seems to be my fate at the moment. And that, readers of my sometimes rather pessimistic blog, is a VERY GOOD THING INDEED!!
Neil
Friday, January 19, 2007
God Bless Playtesters!
Dave once said to me that in any business creative thingy, maybe one great idea might come from ten given. I guess the brave part is being able to discard the other nine with some objective clarity. This is the state I am at with the progression of my roleplaying game, which is now called 'Omniverse' by the way.
My initial playtesters have looked it over and one of the central concepts seems to be flawed. They've explained their dislike for it and I have listened. Now, there are three things I can do.
1. Succumb to the whims of my playtesters on every aspect.
2. Hold the creators high ground and ignore them because they simply don't understand
3. Balance what they say with what I think and make a reasoned judgement.
'3' seems obvious, but you don't know how close I came to '2' - and then I remembered what Dave said. The willingness to morph and change a proposition around so that it becomes a more polished whole - even if that means changing some of the central propostions - is a good thing. The balancing question is always, even if the product is good now, how can it be made better?
So hurrah to playtesters and their ability to feedback constructive comments and make great suggestions. Any designer should be thankful for his testers!
Neil
My initial playtesters have looked it over and one of the central concepts seems to be flawed. They've explained their dislike for it and I have listened. Now, there are three things I can do.
1. Succumb to the whims of my playtesters on every aspect.
2. Hold the creators high ground and ignore them because they simply don't understand
3. Balance what they say with what I think and make a reasoned judgement.
'3' seems obvious, but you don't know how close I came to '2' - and then I remembered what Dave said. The willingness to morph and change a proposition around so that it becomes a more polished whole - even if that means changing some of the central propostions - is a good thing. The balancing question is always, even if the product is good now, how can it be made better?
So hurrah to playtesters and their ability to feedback constructive comments and make great suggestions. Any designer should be thankful for his testers!
Neil
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Taking the Plunge...
Well, after a degree of sweating and much thought, the second draft of 'the roleplaying game' is nearing completion. That said, it needs a good rewrite and edit and then a few more worked examples and maybe a little bit of purloined spot art (to break the text of nothing else) but it is ready for the next step.
Giving it to 'The Guys'
Now, you might think the FIRST people I would go to in my quest to design a game would be my regular gamer buddies but no. I've trawled my casual gamer friends first. Why? Because my gaming group know me FAR too well and know the way I think FAR too well. They are also some of the cleverest, most complicated critics I know.
You'll understand that I wanted to have it pretty much done before I unleashed the Alpha at them!
Not only that, but I'm going to float 'Omniverse' (as it now will be known) and it's first setting book 'MI:666' to some of them as our alternate week game. It's quite exciting and more than a little dangerous really. Bruised egos ahoy!
Neil
Giving it to 'The Guys'
Now, you might think the FIRST people I would go to in my quest to design a game would be my regular gamer buddies but no. I've trawled my casual gamer friends first. Why? Because my gaming group know me FAR too well and know the way I think FAR too well. They are also some of the cleverest, most complicated critics I know.
You'll understand that I wanted to have it pretty much done before I unleashed the Alpha at them!
Not only that, but I'm going to float 'Omniverse' (as it now will be known) and it's first setting book 'MI:666' to some of them as our alternate week game. It's quite exciting and more than a little dangerous really. Bruised egos ahoy!
Neil
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Baby Steps
A few posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted to write a roleplaying game and since then, I have been reading and listening to quite a bit about the subject. Well, finally this weekend the ideas and concepts came together into something that resembled a system. It's nowhere near the outside world seeing it yet and has to get a large swathe of testing under it's belt BUT at least we have a start.
One thing that has become readily apparent is that whilst, in some of the current models of indie games, this could be a future money spinner - thats not what I want to achieve. I've set myself (initially) a little challenge.
1. The main rules shall be no longer than 12 pages of A5
2. I have to say everything I want to say about the system for the players in those 12 pages
3. There will be a 12 page 'GM' book as well - more of a discussion document than rules really.
4. Setting books will be 8 pages long.
Settings books? Well, what struck me was that the system I have created mirrors the gaming practices of my group pretty well, and thats a penchant for world building within game. Indeed, much of character creation revolves around the creation of the world as well as the character. However, it's very very difficult to create a world in a vacuum and even harder to create characters therein. So why not have tiny little seeder books which give the barest bones of a campaign for people to use/discard/adapt and moreover grow their characters from, changing the world as they go in character generation.
This is in no way, shape or form a handy dumping ground for ideas that I have had that never got past the conceptual stage...honest! However, the first one I have in mind is MI:666 - modern horror in a world where the Powers That Be *know* that Hell exists....
Anyway, progress is a good thing!
Neil
One thing that has become readily apparent is that whilst, in some of the current models of indie games, this could be a future money spinner - thats not what I want to achieve. I've set myself (initially) a little challenge.
1. The main rules shall be no longer than 12 pages of A5
2. I have to say everything I want to say about the system for the players in those 12 pages
3. There will be a 12 page 'GM' book as well - more of a discussion document than rules really.
4. Setting books will be 8 pages long.
Settings books? Well, what struck me was that the system I have created mirrors the gaming practices of my group pretty well, and thats a penchant for world building within game. Indeed, much of character creation revolves around the creation of the world as well as the character. However, it's very very difficult to create a world in a vacuum and even harder to create characters therein. So why not have tiny little seeder books which give the barest bones of a campaign for people to use/discard/adapt and moreover grow their characters from, changing the world as they go in character generation.
This is in no way, shape or form a handy dumping ground for ideas that I have had that never got past the conceptual stage...honest! However, the first one I have in mind is MI:666 - modern horror in a world where the Powers That Be *know* that Hell exists....
Anyway, progress is a good thing!
Neil
Friday, October 20, 2006
More Itching and a possible salve; and Pendragon musing
Gah!
The Itch to write a roleplaying game is still there, annoyingly so. What didn't help was me stumbling across a massive rpg-related podcast archive and stumbling across a 30-diatribe by the guy that designed Sorceror on the print-on-demand style of publishing. Everything he said fits in perfectly to my imagined 'business plan' on this type of stuff. Furthermore, I already know my artist and his rates. I know my layout man and his rates (nowt, it's me!). I know at least a couple of alpha and beta tester groups with very different styles. And I have a large wodge of inheritance cash coming my way soon. Even a small introduction of capital could make something like this come off and well.... well, theres a bit of an ancient pact between me and my wife to fulfil. If it isn't publishing something, it's running a comic shop and the former is waaay cheaper!!
It seems rather fanciful doesn't it? A 'normal person' writing and shockingly publishing an rpg? But surely everyone that starts off in any sort of small press endeavour is just an ordinary person with a bit of self belief? Someone who is willing to go beyond the gaming table and step up, make the gut check and do something bigger? Designers aren't some race of demigods - they're just gamers. My time working with Comic Images has proved to me that given enough confidence, hard work bloody mindedness, your gaming hobby can take you anywhere you want to - even Wrestlemania!
Nothing is impossible.
Of course, there is one small fly in the ointment. Actually, it's more of a large rotten grey whale in the ointment.
Inspiration.
Where do you start?
What do you want to do - a new game? a new mechanic? something that meets a need that isn't being reached at our gaming table? A genre product? A pastiche of a licenced product? What about? What area of the world do I feel confident enough about to be able to write confidently about it - an area that isn't smothered already....
And then the doubts start - does the world need another rpg?
Then again, if that was the case, surely everyone would be playing GURPS.
Even as an intellectual exercise - IGNORE the stuff about publishing - this feels like something I should work through. Something that allows me to take everything that has changed in my gaming over the last six years and focus it. Coming up with a gaming mechanic that matches my love for character crunch and my predeliction towards minimal rules interference when the game actually starts. Something I would be happy playing -and- refereeing.
I think this one is going to rumble on here for a while
---
And now, more on Pendragon!
Sunday should be a full group game again, which is awesome. I'm really pleased that Nigel has managed to bring a game to the table that appears to have solved our one Achilles heel in gaming - inconsistency of group appearance. The year-by-year nature of the campaign and the vast array of alternate activities that characters can be undertaking make accommodating a player no-show very easy. The campaign really doesn't stand a chance of being derailed unless there is a major - and that means more than 2 of 4 players - no-show.
After the mini-session that introduced Andrews new character, I feel that I am finally finding a true 'voice' for Sir Brion. I envisaged him initially as a bit of an oaf, but once again I find it extremely difficult playing 'slow' or 'socially inept' characters. I like to make speeches and engage in verbal sparring etc. Brion has settled into his role as 'enforcer knight' quite well and I'm looking forward to Sunday as I want to present my squire in a very positive light, I want to run an Imbolc festival and I want to give Sir Fancy Pants Swordsman a piece of my (hopefully Proud) mind.
Good gaming makes for a happy gamer. I can tell I am a happy gamer because I am beginning to think around the character rather than just through the adventures. Very happy indeed.
N.
The Itch to write a roleplaying game is still there, annoyingly so. What didn't help was me stumbling across a massive rpg-related podcast archive and stumbling across a 30-diatribe by the guy that designed Sorceror on the print-on-demand style of publishing. Everything he said fits in perfectly to my imagined 'business plan' on this type of stuff. Furthermore, I already know my artist and his rates. I know my layout man and his rates (nowt, it's me!). I know at least a couple of alpha and beta tester groups with very different styles. And I have a large wodge of inheritance cash coming my way soon. Even a small introduction of capital could make something like this come off and well.... well, theres a bit of an ancient pact between me and my wife to fulfil. If it isn't publishing something, it's running a comic shop and the former is waaay cheaper!!
It seems rather fanciful doesn't it? A 'normal person' writing and shockingly publishing an rpg? But surely everyone that starts off in any sort of small press endeavour is just an ordinary person with a bit of self belief? Someone who is willing to go beyond the gaming table and step up, make the gut check and do something bigger? Designers aren't some race of demigods - they're just gamers. My time working with Comic Images has proved to me that given enough confidence, hard work bloody mindedness, your gaming hobby can take you anywhere you want to - even Wrestlemania!
Nothing is impossible.
Of course, there is one small fly in the ointment. Actually, it's more of a large rotten grey whale in the ointment.
Inspiration.
Where do you start?
What do you want to do - a new game? a new mechanic? something that meets a need that isn't being reached at our gaming table? A genre product? A pastiche of a licenced product? What about? What area of the world do I feel confident enough about to be able to write confidently about it - an area that isn't smothered already....
And then the doubts start - does the world need another rpg?
Then again, if that was the case, surely everyone would be playing GURPS.
Even as an intellectual exercise - IGNORE the stuff about publishing - this feels like something I should work through. Something that allows me to take everything that has changed in my gaming over the last six years and focus it. Coming up with a gaming mechanic that matches my love for character crunch and my predeliction towards minimal rules interference when the game actually starts. Something I would be happy playing -and- refereeing.
I think this one is going to rumble on here for a while
---
And now, more on Pendragon!
Sunday should be a full group game again, which is awesome. I'm really pleased that Nigel has managed to bring a game to the table that appears to have solved our one Achilles heel in gaming - inconsistency of group appearance. The year-by-year nature of the campaign and the vast array of alternate activities that characters can be undertaking make accommodating a player no-show very easy. The campaign really doesn't stand a chance of being derailed unless there is a major - and that means more than 2 of 4 players - no-show.
After the mini-session that introduced Andrews new character, I feel that I am finally finding a true 'voice' for Sir Brion. I envisaged him initially as a bit of an oaf, but once again I find it extremely difficult playing 'slow' or 'socially inept' characters. I like to make speeches and engage in verbal sparring etc. Brion has settled into his role as 'enforcer knight' quite well and I'm looking forward to Sunday as I want to present my squire in a very positive light, I want to run an Imbolc festival and I want to give Sir Fancy Pants Swordsman a piece of my (hopefully Proud) mind.
Good gaming makes for a happy gamer. I can tell I am a happy gamer because I am beginning to think around the character rather than just through the adventures. Very happy indeed.
N.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
The Eternal Itch has returned
No, I don't mean returning to the GM position.
This is worse.
It happens about every two years. It is fruitless and pointless but it hits me really bad.
I want to write a roleplaying game.
Ever since I first got my hands on the red box D&D I have been writing roleplaying stuff. Within two years of first feeling a d20 smothered in wax crayon I had hand-written a 200 page fantasy world. A really really bad fantasy world, admittedly, but a fully fledged one nonetheless.
Years later, before Uni, I did write my own system and we played it, altered it and tested it to death. It was .... well, before it's time. High fantasy and then some. It was Exalted but in 1988. I have no idea where my Big Red Book of notes went but the tables and charts and general notes are a great loss to me. The modern day irony of a Dreamweaver class would be funny too.
When I was deeply immersed in the CCG hobby, I wanted to make a CCG. A Red Dwarf CCG. My theory was solid, my gameplay (in my eyes) decent and fun. However, being a perfectionist that I was, my inability to actually produce cards was my downfall. Thankfully my photoshop-fu has increased substantially. Thats no longer a problem!
(I have to say that I did scratch the itch a little by playtesting Raw Deal for many years....)
Since then, the urge has come and gone. The slew of more generic systems available to the market have made custom gaming much easier. My understanding of the theory of gaming and how I prefer to play has grown immensely. However, so has my ability to write, desktop publish, internet publish and project manage. Now I am more than aware that I have the practical tools to produce a professional looking roleplaying project to share with others. And I have the resources to do it rather cheaply as well.
The return of The Itch isn't a shock. I'm writing again, reading again and very happily playing our Pendragon campaign. World of Warcraft appears to be the casualty of this latest change of focus - I'll comment on that one some day when I can get my thoughts together about it. A happy Neil I may be, but that usually means I need some project to work on and fanfic writing simply isn't enough.
Of course the downside of the entire affair is that I'm a flighty little thing and really, I doubt anything I do will get finished. Also, I don't really think the world needs a new system or game. Maybe a setting booking for Unisystem Lite? Who knows.
Anyway, the Itch is back. Now I just need to know what to do with it
Neil
This is worse.
It happens about every two years. It is fruitless and pointless but it hits me really bad.
I want to write a roleplaying game.
Ever since I first got my hands on the red box D&D I have been writing roleplaying stuff. Within two years of first feeling a d20 smothered in wax crayon I had hand-written a 200 page fantasy world. A really really bad fantasy world, admittedly, but a fully fledged one nonetheless.
Years later, before Uni, I did write my own system and we played it, altered it and tested it to death. It was .... well, before it's time. High fantasy and then some. It was Exalted but in 1988. I have no idea where my Big Red Book of notes went but the tables and charts and general notes are a great loss to me. The modern day irony of a Dreamweaver class would be funny too.
When I was deeply immersed in the CCG hobby, I wanted to make a CCG. A Red Dwarf CCG. My theory was solid, my gameplay (in my eyes) decent and fun. However, being a perfectionist that I was, my inability to actually produce cards was my downfall. Thankfully my photoshop-fu has increased substantially. Thats no longer a problem!
(I have to say that I did scratch the itch a little by playtesting Raw Deal for many years....)
Since then, the urge has come and gone. The slew of more generic systems available to the market have made custom gaming much easier. My understanding of the theory of gaming and how I prefer to play has grown immensely. However, so has my ability to write, desktop publish, internet publish and project manage. Now I am more than aware that I have the practical tools to produce a professional looking roleplaying project to share with others. And I have the resources to do it rather cheaply as well.
The return of The Itch isn't a shock. I'm writing again, reading again and very happily playing our Pendragon campaign. World of Warcraft appears to be the casualty of this latest change of focus - I'll comment on that one some day when I can get my thoughts together about it. A happy Neil I may be, but that usually means I need some project to work on and fanfic writing simply isn't enough.
Of course the downside of the entire affair is that I'm a flighty little thing and really, I doubt anything I do will get finished. Also, I don't really think the world needs a new system or game. Maybe a setting booking for Unisystem Lite? Who knows.
Anyway, the Itch is back. Now I just need to know what to do with it
Neil
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